AIRTEC Motorsport offer performance-enhancing cooling products and solutions. The brand has evolved into one of the leading performance parts manufacturers in the UK, having developed over 1,500 specific products catering for 25 different car manufacturers, as well as supplying a range of aftermarket parts through recognised partners.
Airtec Motorsports Interview
We visited Airtec HQ to get the lowdown on how Shiptheory and Stok.ly have saved them from "Organisational chaos".
Q&A
Find out what the Airtec team had to say about Shiptheory and Stok.ly
Q: Can you give us a little background on the Airtec story, why did you decide to evaluate your technology?
20 years ago me and my Dad first set the company up when it was just small parts for RS turbos and older cars, then we grew the business by evolving with the scene at the time. We used to spend a lot of time at car shows, which was good, but we had to do around 25 car shows a year just to get your name out of there, which was a lot of work.
Websites were just coming out for smaller companies, we got someone to build our eCommerce site which helped boost sales and expand our market reach. When it came to managing stock and shipping products, we were manual for a long time, too long! That’s what got us into this organisational chaos.
Q: Talk us through the operational side of the business.
Now we've got 3 websites, two that sell the same thing, one that sells our Silicone hoses, and we also use Amazon as well. We use DPD for our parcels, internationally we use DHL. Back in the day you needed to know the warehouse inside out, to know where everything was or else you would spend a bunch of time trying to find the right products.
Using Stok.ly and Shiptheory, we can keep on top of the products we sell the most of and get them fulfilled, picked, packed and shipped - which means less delay times and more happy customers.
Q: How have things changed with Shiptheory and Stok.ly?
That process made it quite difficult for picking and packing. We’d be printing the order from the website. We’d have to go and find it, box it, pack it, enter the address manually into the computer, to print the address label out, so if someone else is printing an order out, it meant you’d have to wait for someone else to finish.
We’ve only got the one PC in our packing area - which made things difficult. Whereas now it’s automated. So we get the order in, that’ll tell us exactly where everything is, the guys can go and get it, pick it, pack it, press dispatch, the order comes out - happy days.
Q: How do Shiptheory and Stok.ly work as part of your process?
With the handsets, it tells us exactly the bay location, gives you all the information needed; which bracket it’s at, and it’s really simple, you can walk into the warehouse and on you go! It can’t get any easier really. Now shipping labels automatically print out and the correct carrier is assigned, streamlining everything.
The customer service is really good, if we have any problems, the guys are on it straight away. The customer service is second to none really.
Q: Overall, what impact has Shiptheory and Stok.ly had on the business?
Using Shiptheory and Stok.ly is a massive time saving. It’s narrowed down our packing and dispatch process.
There has definitely been a cost saving, if it hasn’t been worked out in monetary value, it’s done in hours, because we’ve gained hours back to be able to work on the business. It has helped us grow massively and given us time to push other areas of the business, which we didn't have time to do before.
The system just works seamlessly!